Naturi Naughton

===Career===
Born and raised in East Orange, New Jersey, her musical talent first emerged at the age of 5 years old, when she joined the choir at her Baptist church. She attended Our Lady of the Valley in Orange, New Jersey with classmates Vijay Ramrattan, Amar Persaud, and Richard Singh in her former years.

Career

Born and raised in East Orange, New Jersey, her musical talent first emerged at the age of 5 years old, when she joined the choir at her Baptist church. She attended Our Lady of the Valley in Orange, New Jersey with classmates Vijay Ramrattan, Amar Persaud, and Richard Singh in her former years. Then attended St. Joseph's Catholic school for a brief period of time before being discovered. She sang the national anthem for various events in New Jersey.

Naturi Naughton 3LW

In 1999, at age 15, Naughton joined Adrienne Bailon and Kiely Williams to form the group 3LW. Their first single, "No More (Baby I'ma Do Right)", was released in the fall of 2000. "No More" was a success and was followed by the second single, "Playas Gon' Play" in early 2001. The group's debut album, 3LW, was released on December 5, 2000. The album went platinum, selling 1.3 million copies in the US. In the summer of 2001, the group went on the MTV TRL tour along with Destiny's Child, Dream, Nelly, Eve, and Jessica Simpson.

3LW spent the first half of 2002 in the studio, recording an album tentatively titled Same Game, Different Rules. The album and its intended lead single "Uh Oh" were presented to the label, who felt it did not have enough urban radio appeal. The tracks from Same Game, Different Rules were leaked to the Internet in MP3 format, and Epic considered dropping the band. A fan support campaign for 3LW named 'Never Let Go Of 3LW' after their song 'Nevr Let Go' spread to the radio, and the act was retained.

Recording a new set of tracks, 3LW returned in late summer of 2002 with the P. Diddy-produced single "I Do (Wanna Get Close To You)", featuring Loon. By August, the group was set to release its newest LP, A Girl Can Mack, when Naughton announced that she was no longer a member of the group. Naughton says that the other two girls and their management had forced her out of the group after attempting to for months and even degraded her. The problems reached a breaking poing in August 2002 when Naughton left after a heated argument with Williams, Bailon, and their manager. Naughton had tried to settle with the group and give into their demands for months leading up to the argument, deciding it was not worth leaving the group after a few fights and that it would have been a shame to end a group that had so much hard work put into it. However, during the heated argument, Williams allegedly threw a hot plate full of KFC food at Naughton, proving to be the final straw. After Naughton's departure, Bailon and Williams resumed as a two-member group and released the single Neva Get Enuf, which did not feature Naughton's vocals. The single failed to make a dent on radio or the Billboard Hot 100. 3LW replaced Naughton with Jessica Benson, but have since disbanded. Bailon and Williams have now joined The Cheetah Girls.

Naturi Naughton Solo career

Naughton is collaborating with producers Full Force on a solo debut album. Confirmed tracks for the album are "Real Chicks" (featuring Lil' Kim), "Stand Up", "What You Do" and "Your Girlfriend." In a recent interview with Naturi, she says that she doesn't actually have an album coming out anytime soon, but that she is trying to get a good record deal and trying to be more patient with releasing a new album.

Naturi Naughton Acting career

Naughton starred in the Tony Award winning Broadway musical Hairspray as Little Inez from 2005-2008. Naturi played rapper Lil' Kim in the movie, Notorious, a big screen biopic on the late Notorious B.I.G. Notorious opened at #4 at the box office with over $21 million made opening weekend. Naturi has also done a commercial for Truth.com, titled "It Must've Been A Typo". More recently, Naughton has signed on to play a pianist named Denise in the upcoming remake of the 1980 movie and TV show musical Fame. That film is due out in theaters September 2009.

In the Fall of 2011 Naturi will star on the new NBC series "The Playboy Club."